Digital Subscribers Way Up for News Corp. in UK, But Print Readers Steadily Down

Zacks: "News International, a subsidiary of News Corporation, which began charging readers for online content for The Times of London and Sunday Times of London, in early July 2010, witnessed a surge in the number of digital subscribers -- up approximately 60% during a four-month period, Bloomberg reports." BUT: Print subscriber numbers are down, a 12.1% fall in the past year. Digital readers pay considerably less than print readers. Digital subscribers pay 8.67 pounds per month, while newsstand buyers pay 8.70 pounds per week. FURTHER NOTE: The paywall in question is non-porous, as opposed to the one just launched by The New York Times. Very different animal. Much easier for would-be readers to "game" the latter without paying.

Kindle Will Bypass New York Times Paywall

PCWorld: "When there's a paywall, there's a way, and there are no shortages of methods to dodge or dissemble The New York Times' new content subscription paywall. Even as the Old Gray Lady attempts to shut down loophole-exploiters, like the renegade Twitter feeds reposting NYT content so readers don't have to pay, more procedures sprout by the day. ... "

That was quick: Four lines of code is all it takes for The New York Times’ paywall to come tumbling down

Josh Benton, Nieman Journalism Lab: "The New York Times paywall is costing the newspaper $40-$50 million to design and construct, Bloomberg has reported. And it can be defeated through four lines of Javascript." Read Josh's interesting piece and then check NYTClean. Couldn't be easier.

On eve of 'The Daily' launch, rival iPad apps offer previews

AppleInsider:

Ahead of News Corp's unveiling of The Daily digital newspaper on Wednesday, developers showed off competing iPad apps, including a social news app from The New York Times and a digital book platform from a former Apple designer. ...

News Corp's iPad publication could also be the first to implement an iTunes subscription feature that Apple has reportedly been working on. Publishers have pressed Apple for an iPad subscription agreement that would automatically send content to paying customers.

Competitors, however, haven't been idly watching The Daily's development process. The New York Times, in collaboration with Betaworks, is working on News.me, a social news app that will aggregate article links from Twitter streams and link sharing site bit.ly, TechCrunch reports. The approach is worlds apart from News Corp's, which focuses on producing custom content.

Also making headlines Tuesday was Push Pop Press, a startup from former Apple designer and Delicious Monster founder Michael Matas. The startup, which aims to create a "new breed" of interactive digital books, launched a teaser site Tuesday. ...

New York Times Paywall Latest

Mashable: "Bloomberg's source claims that subscribers to the print version of NYT will get full access to the online service as well. Furthermore, president of the New York Times Scott Heekin-Canedy said last month that the price for access to the web edition would be comparable to the Kindle subscription, which probably means it will be just a tad lower than $20 a month. The paywall, which was scheduled to go up this January, is a reversed approach from what NYT was doing so far: right now, it charges for archived and editorial content while the new content is free. With the paywall up, a set number of articles will remain free each month for non-subscribers, but anything over that number will require a monthly subscription. ... "

I'd love to see the p&l assumptions for this, especially the Times's forecasted sign-up and retention rates. And I wonder whether the edition behind the paywall will be ad-free. Probably not. Should be interesting to watch. Bear in mind that the Times's previous attempt to charge for "premium content" (aka, Maureen Dowd, for those who consider her ramblings readable) was an incredible flop.

Free Content at Starbucks

Well, you'll still have to pay for the content of the coffee cup. But as of July 1st, something called the "Starbuck's Digital Network" will give in-store customers free access to such paid sites and services as the Wall Street Journal, Apple's iTunes, USA TODAY, ZAGAT, etc. The list includes the New York Times - which presumably means that Starbucks customers will be allowed to do an end-run around that publication's impending pay-wall restrictions. There will also now be no arbitrary time limit to instore free WiFi usage. (Up to now, there has been a two hour limit.) Find the Starbucks press release here.

This Just In: New York Times Objects to the Reading of Its Feed

Or so it would seem. Embattled reactionary old media Luddites trying to create false scarcity.

Will the iPad Mean the End of Free Online News?

Well, will it? Rupert Murdoch has a thought or two. So do the gremlins at the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.